Bio-Mechanical Model of the Brain for a Per-Operative Image-Guided Neuronavigator Compensating for "Brain-Shift" Deformations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a biomechanical model and finite element approach to compensate for brain-shift deformations during neurosurgery, improving the accuracy of intra-operative neuronavigation systems.

Contribution

It presents a novel patient-specific finite element modeling framework that accounts for tissue deformations and surgical modifications to enhance neuronavigation accuracy.

Findings

Effective modeling of brain-shift deformations

Improved intra-operative navigation accuracy

Patient-specific finite element meshes generated

Abstract

In this paper we present a methodology to address the problem of brain tissue deformation referred to as 'brain-shift'. This deformation occurs throughout a neurosurgery intervention and strongly alters the accuracy of the neuronavigation systems used to date in clinical routine which rely solely on pre-operative patient imaging to locate the surgical target, such as a tumour or a functional area. After a general description of the framework of our intra-operative image-guided system, we describe a procedure to generate patient specific finite element meshes of the brain and propose a biomechanical model which can take into account tissue deformations and surgical procedures that modify the brain structure, like tumour or tissue resection.